Item:
Title
Additional Funding for HOPE Learning Centers
Body
Date of BOCC Meeting: January 25, 2021
Request for Board Action:
Agenda Text
The Board is requested to consider the additional funding request from the HOPE Learning Centers.
Once Durham Public Schools (DPS) determined that the SY20-21 school year would start with fully remote instruction, efforts to identify sufficient remote learning center options intensified. DPS identified six of their own sites which could be used, which were later reduced to three. Due to concerns about outreach, enrollment, and the question of whether there would be enough free seats available, a number of local non-profits determined to open some additional "HOPE" remote learning centers. All seats at these new centers were to be free, and they were to focus enrollment on those children (and families) which qualified for free and reduced lunch, whose parent(s) work essential jobs, whose parents are unemployed because of COVID, and/or who are part of the foster care system or live in public housing.
These providers, under the fiscal agency of the DPS Foundation, began approaching the City and County in mid-August with funding proposals. The cost estimate of $200 per student per week included sufficient staffing for small, socially-distanced classrooms, backup staffing to account for possible sickness, additional janitorial services similar to those purchased by the County for its buildings, and two meals and snacks for every student each day. On August 24th, Commissioners approved $405,000 of what they thought was partial funding for the first semester, but due to slower initial enrollment and outside fundraising (including $338,000 from the City of Durham), the funding available to the HOPE providers sufficed for all of the first semester, which ran through January 15th, 2021.
The HOPE Learning Centers are all operating at capacity at this point, as are the remaining three DPS remote learning centers. Though ...
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